Have you ever wondered about the things you allow yourself to do? Did you know that everything you do is a choice only you make, and that once it's done it can never be returned to? Obviously you are quite aware of this. But do you also realize that each choice you make affects everyone around you? Have you ever thought about that?

Just think about it: everything you do is noticed by people all around you. They might not appear very interested, but a little considering will show that every one of our actions affects people enough that they have to constantly change their lives around the choices we make. If a child disrupts the class, everyone there will loose the time and energies of the teacher until either the child is brought back to his place or removed from the class. Or, if a man decides to rob a bank, everyone there equally becomes a victim of the loss of time; not to mention the possibility of real danger.

But is there any other way people's actions can Harm you and me? Did you ever think that your actions influence others around you? Think back to that unpleasant child. What effect did he have on the others in the class? If his actions could speak they would first say: "What I'm doing is OK." They would also say: "I don't care if anyone looses out, I just want what I want!" Now if you cannot see that such a child's actions say just this, then just try and be a teacher while you hold on to such views. And what about the robber? Of course, no one doubts that he is robbing people of things and is utterly selfish.

But what do these two selfish people have in common in influencing and harming others? Anyone who considers the matter at all will see plainly that their actions encourage or breed the same or similar actions.

Is it not obvious when a man sets up his own selfish way as a rule to always live by that he is also saying that everyone else can do the same. And isn't it true that bad attitudes breed bad attitudes?

My point in demonstrating all this is that bad actions breed bad actions no matter how small they are. Everyone knows how an angry person makes others more inclined to be angry. Equally true is it that good actions make others often more eager to good themselves. My wife recently was shopping with me at Wal Mart and instinctively set up a different pair of shoes on the display where she had just taken the last particular pair that she wanted. An employee noticed this and was quite overcome by such an action. This same woman was at her wits end after constantly rearranging things careless customers were plowing through. The careless and selfish influence was making her much inclined to do the same and give up. But this single, almost insignificant, action gave her renewed zeal. She was clearly an example of what we are speaking about.

This principle that actions breed similar actions also implies that it can encourage bad people to become good, and good people to become bad. A good wise man said this long ago: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." For who can be angry for long at one who insists on being good to you, even when you are bad to them?

But how does all this relate to HALLOWEEN you might be asking? Well, I will answer this by another question for you to really ponder: Does Halloween, and all that is related to it, influence people to be good or bad? One of the problems in looking at issues of such a nature and which are so widely practiced, is people usually only consider their limited surroundings, and what the neighborhood thinks of it, when they decide to approve of it and practice it. But is it not demanded in us to reflect on how it might affect people at large; or to see if it just might encourage people to be bad or selfish in some way?

Let me try and bring it closer to home. If you were the parent in a family and had precious little-ones who looked to you with confidence, would you not strongly oppose any intruder who might seek to corrupt your children and turn them against you? The answer is too plain to even state. But how is the family kept from becoming corrupt and selfish? Or how is the family reclaimed from selfishness? Could the participation in Halloween activities encourage such? Could anyone really claim in all seriousness that Halloween as a whole tended to bring evil men back onto the path of peace and good-will? Such would be comparable to saying that watching horror movies tends to reclaim murderers!

So if it is so obvious that Halloween does not tend to encourage people to continue to be good, nor to become good, then what is it really doing? Can it really be doubted that the celebration of Halloween—the celebration of death and evil—does actually encourage what it unblushingly celebrates! We hardly need to mention all the numerous tragic stories of people who have been influenced to do the very things they only pretended to do, when, in younger years it was supposed to be so innocent and harmless! The facts are out there for any who care enough to consider them. Doubtless if anyone really saw them up close in their own families they would stay as far as possible from any such related evil.

Perhaps few families suffer only a little from this celebration and the source of it. Our family was ruined by it through the youngest child. As absurd and hypocritical as it may sound, the church where we once attended had a horror room where the young people took great pains to produce a haunted house! There the same youngest in the family, only seven or so years old, was put into a large kettle while his older sister pretended to cook him to death! All the while he observed the most gory acts imaginable. Now let me ask you what kind of impressions would this have produced on such a young child?

It wasn't too many years later, in his 12^th year on Halloween, that he began to live out some of these evil things. That monstrous night he roamed the streets with friends, as so many youth do, and really got into the spirit of the night. He felt compelled to be daring, and craved to fulfill the mood of the hour. Running all over town in a craze, he naturally desired to be abnormal and rebellious. It wasn't long till he began smashing lights, vandalizing property, and even stealing candy from young children. This night was a real turning point in his life, and lead to greater and greater evils.

No one would claim that the celebration of death, or Halloween, was the soul cause in corrupting that child to the end he became; but none would deny that the holiday would have any tendency to prevent such actions. In fact, every employee at any police station will tell you how they dread the night and would easily testify to the direct link between Halloween and crime.

Years later it was only by renouncing and forsaking all involvement with such things that I ever recovered from the criminal life I had been so lost in because of that first night. From the depth of my life I can testify that there is nothing in Halloween that encouraged me to be good and seek the well-being of mankind. The celebration only encouraged any inclinations to do evil or be selfish towards man.

I appeal to your sympathies for the young: consider the great value of their innocence!
I appeal to your concern for youth: consider their tendencies towards mischief!
I appeal to your love for the world: consider the value of law and order in society!
I appeal to your conscience: consider that the celebration promotes no real good, and directly promotes evil!
I appeal to God who will judge you, not by your own standard of selfishness, but by whether you chose the HIGHEST good in all your actions.

And what should we celebrate? What does actually promote goodness in society, or reclaim the selfish among men? Can anything be more obvious than nothing professing to be evil! Why should people celebrate evil, when, as we have seen, it breeds only evil; when we could celebrate that which is good?

Remember also how we talked about how you would feel if a seducer tried to turn your young from your trust. Can it be denied that this whole celebration of evil is directly opposed to God and the celebration of His goodness? Is it any wonder why His chief enemy is so often the star attraction of Halloween? I suppose the Devil himself has achieved all he could desire in that he has received the highest honor through it, and made for himself so many naïve converts who satisfy themselves that there is no real harm in promoting evil!

Consider again, that you will have to give an account for every action you encourage. One day soon enough, death and evil will be cast away from all that is good; and each person will be divided from whatever is opposite to their character: The good will be separated from the bad, and each will continue in that state forever. Why continue on the path that gets only worse? Consider and join the celebration of life! There is recovery for the evil-doers, and restoration for the blind. Yes there is even a celebration about it!

Did you know that there once was a King who was not "overcome with evil, but overcame evil with good." He actually allowed Himself to be evil-treated so that His enemies could be won back to their rightful allegiance to Him. He even went so far as to suffer evil so that His enemies would not have to endure the reward of their evil deeds against Him! If such a king had done that for you in this day could your resist him any longer? My friend, there is such a King for you today! You have neglected all His real interests, and consented to many things against His rule and happiness. But He stands waiting for you to forsake all such things and come to Him for restoration and forgiveness. In light of this, can any other name be given among men in which they can be saved from all the evil of the world? The Saviors' name is known as Jesus. He instructs you from the depths of His experience for you:

"Do not be overcome with evil,
but overcome evil with good."

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If you would like more information about truth and salvation from evil please contact:
Alethea In Heart
Web: http://truthinheart.com
Email: truthinheart@hotmail.com
8071 Main St
Fenwick, MI 48834-9649

By Rick Friedrich 10/00

Ananova: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_833100.html?menu=news.latestheadlines

Halloween has been banned from schools in Moscow after Russian education chiefs ruled it was too pagan.

Officials caved in to Church demands and issued a blanket ban on all Halloween celebrations from carving pumpkin heads to dressing up.

The Moscow Education Department has ordered all schools in the capital to ban any Halloween celebrations, Izvestia newspaper reported.

In a letter sent to school heads and governors teachers were warned that: "The very fact that Halloween activities contain elements such as the cult of death, rejecting death, personification of death and evil spirits produces a destructive effect upon the psychological, moral and spiritual health of students."

A ban had earlier been called for by Russian Orthodox Church leaders who claimed the pagan festival was "satanic".

Story filed: 11:32 Tuesday 28th October 2003